Starship Krupa

I dunno about Audio Assault's amp sims specifically, but if you're in the mood to try amp sims, I recently tried Blue Cat's Free Amp and was pleasantly surprised. I haven't tried to get a djent tone with it, but one of the models is a "Modern Drive" that I think is supposed to be "rectifier-esque." Might be fun to play with. Certainly worth the money.

I would recommend against it. As @scook has already stated, VST3's have a default location, and installers are usually hard-coded to put them there. They shouldn't go anywhere but in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. I don't know if plug-in manufacturers hard code their stuff to expect the .VST3 file to be there, but anything's possible, and you are having a whole world of trouble. For VST2's, the problem with putting them in a folder under C:\Program Files is Permissions. On my system, I am in the Adminstrators Group, so it doesn't much matter, I can override most folder security settings if I don't already have Write and Delete permission. However, if one is but a lowly User, by default, one only has Read & Execute permission to the Program Files folder and subfolders, at least on my system. This can lead to trouble if a plug-in tries to save parameters or presets using the user's permissions. So that I may manage my VST2's more easily, I install them to a top-level folder, C:\VST64, which I have Full Control permissions on. You might try shifting your problem plug-ins around like this and see if anything changes. Can't make it any worse. Be sure, of course, to inform Cakewalk of the new location of the VST2's.

Yikes! Unbelievable. This issue has been a friggin' bugbear for the users and developers, and they were convinced they had nailed it in all its manifestations. I'm disappointed that Sturgis is being a *****. His collaboration with Boz, Sidewidener, is my favorite stereoizer. Well, I trust that the devs have been alerted to its rearing its ugly head once again. Maybe they can open communication channels with JST. I know for sure that they are motivated to squash this one. Is there no workaround like creating Cakewalk presets? I can't remember if that worked with the other plug-ins. I suspect not.

I started using this DAW from the first BandLab version, and in my opinion, which is an opinion and based on the experience of this one single user, I thought it was pretty bad. The core version was supposed to have been the next release of SONAR Pro/Plat. It kept crashing and freezing and my Now Time marker would go off on its own journeys, leaving the main UI behind. There was no user manual, only online help, so it was hard to get a handle on this huge venerable beast. By happenstance I had an account at the old forum, which was populated with shell-shocked veterans of the Gibson deathwatch and who, yes, tended to cop a heavy attitude. I remember being scared that they would chase new users away, but for over 6 months, no new users could join the forum anyway. I had a bit of fun trolling geezers who were convinced that the new owners were going to plant malware in the program to steal information from everyone's hard drives, because otherwise how could they make money by giving away a program that used to cost $300 to buy?? We still get the tinfoil hat people from time to time but not as much. I can't resist, I'm like a kitten with a ball of yarn when one pops up. ? But I kept an eye on it and by the second release, about 60 days later, it took a big jump in stability, started to load faster, started to load projects more quickly. That's when I sat up and started to take BandLab's experiment in reanimating SONAR with a free subscription license seriously. I used to work in the commercial software industry and that was one quick turnaround. Bad reputation is a hard thing to change, but whatever, it is what it is. If people want to believe that Cakewalk is still as fragile as it was 2 years ago, all I can do is say that it's definitely not on the 3 computers I use it on and maybe you'll think I'm one of those people who is pushing back against the criticism or whatever. That is my experience. The point in telling someone that some procedure or plug-in or other works on my Cakewalk system isn't to somehow "defend" a program that I use to record music with or a corporation whose owners and employees I've never met and who still won't make it so I can turn off that stupid number box at the top of the Aim Assist line. The point (when I say it, anyway) is to give someone who is having trouble a little more info to work with. It may not seem helpful, but knowing that it's not broken on all systems helps with troubleshooting. Then we can ask what's different between your system and mine. Sound driver? Video driver? Anything? Well this sounds pretty awful, and when I was reading it my eyes automatically jumped over to see how many posts you have made on here, because you seem well-spoken and all and I was surprised I didn't recognize your handle/avatar. Only 16? Have you brought these plug-in issues up on the public forum? I'd encourage you to do so immediately if you haven't. I've witnessed multiple examples of the developers addressing plug-in issues that were being batted about in the public forum. The squeakier wheels do tend to get the grease, and at the least, people need to know if other people are having problems getting their favorite plug-ins to work with Cakewalk. You don't want to start a big project and then find out that you can't use your favorite pitch corrector on the vocal. It's also helpful to share these fixes you found with the rest of the forum. I'm specifically interested in whatever trouble you're having with MAutopitch, because I have more invested in Meldaproduction plug-ins than any other brand, including a license for MAutopitch, so I can try whatever it is you're trying. I just tried inserting it on an audio track, so it at least loads okay. I'm going to get silly here and point out that Cakewalk doesn't care. Cakewalk, Inc. no longer exists, and Cakewalk the program is not sentient. ? As for saying "okay, bye" when someone throws a temper tantrum and threatens to take their Behringer C1 and go home, I'm okay with that. The program is freeware. What is someone trying to leverage with when they say that? Watch it or you'll decrease your installed user base by one? There was one guy, Scott, who posted a video on YouTube, and he was frustrated and angry with Cakewalk, and justifiably so, he had been working with Cakewalk, Inc. for a long time on some longstanding bugs and had been producing a series of YouTube tutorial videos using Cakewalk and said bugs had shown up again and fatally interfered with the workflow on the projects he was trying to demonstrate in the videos. So he got on there and posted a video about his frustrations and said that he could no longer recommend the program to new users nor could he stand to use it himself, that the bugs had been outstanding for too long, etc. Fair enough. Someone posted a link to it here, controversy ensued, and yes, there were the predictable Cakewalk apologists. But the devs responded and put a ton of work into fixing his main complaint, which did go back a long time and involved getting in touch with Steinberg and digging into arcane areas of the VST3 spec and all sorts of things. It was a bear to iron out, but they did it. The guy's statement (not threat) he was going to bail had leverage, though. He had a YouTube channel with followers, he posted a video, and he was telling the truth, he had actually submitted the issues to Cakewalk, Inc. years earlier, back in the Gibson days. It wasn't just some dude coming on like everyone should quake at the idea that he wouldn't be using Cakewalk any more because now it makes you go online every 6 months to validate and his internet only works for 3 weeks after Christmas when his grandson comes over and fiddles with it then the cleaning lady does something and messes it up again. Yes, it's good business for BandLab to listen to its users. Yes, it's good business for people who use Cakewalk to be happy with Cakewalk. Does it cost BandLab anything when someone downloads Cakewalk, checks it out, and decides they don't like it? Does it cost BandLab anything more when someone who "used SONAR since 8.3, paid for every single upgrade all the way through X3 and then bought the Lifetime Subscription" decides to start using Cubase instead? I hope we see more of you around here. Go on over to Instruments and Effects and post about what's going on with MAutoPitch if you haven't yet. I want to know what's up with that.

Not that DAW software you don't. ? You're in for a real treat once you get your V-Studio working. (By that I mean a pretty girl will cough and then someone will give you a handful of aspirin)

Themesmanship can be a tricky business. You can literally fix one thing and create 3 problems because when you adjust one single color, for instance, it may adjust the color in 4 locations, and those locations may not seem to have much to do with each other. I recently saw someone asking about which color to change for a text label, and it turned out to be the same color as for some slider controls in the Track View. The tool was supposed to be in-house only originally, so there's some roughness around its edges. Wonderful thing to have, I must say, and my candidate for Cakewalk's most underrated feature.

Heavens, the OP did say "please." I don't begrudge anyone posting a deal in whatever form they wish, but it would be nice if folks could mention that the "Free Hammond B3" in the topic was soundware for or otherwise required ownership of a proprietary platform, be it Kontakt, Sampletank, Ableton, PreSonus or otherwise. For me it's not the time, trouble or effort to click and read about it, it's getting stoked when I read it and then disappointed when I find out that it's Studio One owners only or whatever. But that's my issue, and as I said, I begrudge nobody, and I post deals the way I choose and so should everyone else as long as the information is factual.

You're not the only one. I love the Aim Assist Line, but I really, really, would like to be able to toggle that box off. It's sort of a tradeoff for me. If I use Aim Assist, I lose the ability to see the ruler numbers, but if I turn it off, I lose its functionality, which is great. Usually I leave it on. The box would be fine if it just didn't cover up the ruler numbers....

Good question, actually! And although I'm not an employee of BandLab, I'm an enthusiastic user of their products and platforms, and not only Cakewalk. I think I can shine some light on how it all fits together. Technically, BandLab Assistant doesn't have a "demo mode," but I understand what you mean. BA is a lot more than simply a way for users to download, install, and register Cakewalk, although you might get the idea that's all it does from reading this forum. After all, this forum is for discussing Cakewalk. But if you take 5 minutes to navigate around BA, you'll notice that the Cakewalk-specific parts of it are just a fraction of its functionality. Yes, it downloads and installs CbB, and keeps it registered, and it also allows you to download and install the Cakewalk add-ons like the Theme Editor and Studio-Instruments. But right up above that, you'll see a panel that says "BandLab," with a button to click on the BandLab website. It serves as a gateway to the BandLab website. Not that a smart user needs that, but it may serve to direct a curious user there. That's the advert, I suppose. Next, if you click on the Sounds tab, you'll see that it takes you to a screen where you have access to thousands of free loops for download. The final tab is the most important one, as it takes you to a screen that provides an interface to upload sound files to your Bandlab account, and another to go directly to the BandLab browser-based DAW. Down below those is a list of your BandLab projects which you may manage from BA. I've already used my BandLab account to share audio files. It's great, no limit on the storage, supposedly. Under the hood in BandLab Assistant are various mechanisms that allow Cakewalk to upload and download audio files/stems/tracks from your BandLab account. This functionality will surely be expanded in the future. Importantly, BA also allows BandLab to know how many of the downloaded copies of Cakewalk are actually installed, unlike other freeware licensing models which would not provide this information. Those are just some of the things that BandLab Assistant does for the user and for BandLab. If you can't figure out how they might at least someday make money from any of that, you're probably still expecting them to go broke because they're giving Cakewalk away for free.? CbB goes into a mode where it won't save projects if it either A. hasn't had its subscription renewed over the internet in the last 6 months or B. hasn't been installed properly using BA on an internet connected system. Why it does this I can only speculate, but numero uno guess is that BandLab Assistant does all of the above stuff and they want people to at least look at it once. As for the 6 month validation, I suspect that they just want to know if people are using it, much like TapeOp wants to know that copies of their magazine are still being read, so I have to re-up every year. BandLab are always improving the thing, and they probably want people to go online and see that there's a new version available with new collaborative features that they may choose to install or not. An important thing is that Cakewalk is one of BandLab's 4 DAW's, the one that is still least connected to the online service. BA is the connector. Easier ways to get projects back and forth between them are doubtlessly on the horizon. A Cakewalk that could be separated from BandLab Assistant would go against those plans. I hope this helps. P.S. As Elon Musk's recent experiences with steel spheres and "unbreakable" windows reminded us, before any important gig, take your equipment on a dry run beforehand. Don't wait until you show up at the studio to run your DAW only to discover that it uses a free subscription license that must be renewed at least once every 6 months. I also defer my updates on critical path systems, but as we see, in these times, leaving your computer unplugged from the internet is not a "safety measure." P.P.S. I agree that the process by which BandLab Assistant updates itself seems to happen too often and also fail too often, making the user go to the hassle of downloading it from the website. It's broken. They're trying to fix it. I hope. When it's working smoothly, I'm fine with it in principle. I do understand there are people who want/need to keep their systems mostly offline and I have had long conversations with them about working out strategies for that.

How do we tell what version of Cakewalk Theme Editor we have, and/or update it accordingly? I'm going to presume that at some point the program will be updated. I don't know what the "current" version is, or if I am running it. How do I find out?

Indeed. And if you're inclined to clean up after it like I am make sure that you get the 32-bit VST3's that are in Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3 folder. I regularly make a tour of my Program Files\Common Files\Avid and Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3 folders to make sure nothing I have no need for is taking up space on my SSD. It's amusing to see the places that some of these plug-in companies put their stuff in addition to the places that I specify. Waves is the weirdest, those Wave shell dll's wind up all over the place, but I'd have to say that A|A|S is right behind them. It seems like if a folder even has the string "vst" somewhere in its name, A|A|S will plop copies of their .dll's in it just in case. And when I started using Cakewalk, the A|A|S installer decided it had found an old friend, probably because of the old SPlum bundling agreements, and started spewing .dll's across the Cakewalk folder system.

Whoo, this thread needs a bump, but I don't have any new freebies at the moment (although I will in the next few days). A couple of 2019 Black Friday freeware alerts: Make sure to go to Waves and sign up for their annual Black Friday freebie. Whatever it is, it's usually worth the cost of an email address. And remember, email addresses are free. Good idea to have one that you use for offers like this and not for more sensitive things like banking and whatnot. Next isn't exactly a freebie (and please don't raise any debates about why Vojtech calls his MFreeFXBundle "free" when it's possible to pay to upgrade it), but Meldaproduction has a 50% off everything sale, which includes the registration/upgrade license for the FreeFXBundle. If you've tried it and use the plug-ins regularly, $28 to access the advanced features is worthwhile. It's a bundle of 34 plug-ins, and he adds to the bundle from time to time, and all additions come under the "lifetime" license. Of course we Cakewalkers know about lifetime licenses: be happy with the software as it is when you buy your "lifetime" license.

For those who only have the Free Bundle, dropping the $28 to register/upgrade the 34 plug-ins is a worthwhile investment. While they are just fine unregistered, the features that are unlocked are handy. Resizable GUI, access to the multiparameters, sonograms, etc.

I see great possibilities in the use of tailored workspaces and they might even take off like user-created themes have. I'd be into checking out workspaces created by other users. Things like "Podcast," "Audiobook," "External MIDI Control," "Loops and MIDI," "Loop Construction," "Live Audio Recording," "Studio Session," all kinds of specialized clean workspaces. Once the project is started, of course the user can switch to a more comprehensive workspace if they want to work with types of tracks or other features that are hidden from the workspace that they started with. That's the cool part, you're not restricted to the features included with your original workspace.

Looks more like he's complaining about features rather than code as such. The XnView developer(s) couldn't be bothered to write their own dialog text? Annoying to the original developer, I guess, but if something works, you can change it for the sake of changing it, or "go with the tried and true." I lean toward the latter myself, although I haven't seen the two side by side. I, too have been using and recommending IrfanView since the '90's, used ACDsee before that in a professional environment. It's kind of odd how you have to do some digging to set up clean UI photo browsers on Windows and MacOS, to this day. The built in image viewers in both of them are kind of dire, IMO. Jim, what cloud storage provider do you find works best for posting images in this way? I have been eternally frustrated in my attempts to post legible screenshots to this forum. At the moment I've given up and just post the raw url. People can click on it if they're interested.

I hear ya. I have trouble with the contrasty-ness myself and usually run with a user-created theme and tuned colors. I'll assume that you've explored the excellent user-created themes? If not, there are some amazing ones available. Also, the people in the Themes sub forum are helpful when it comes to things like tuning color settings. https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/31-ui-themes/

Hey, this is the Feedback Section. So if I say that your response comes from a "macho, shaming mentality," and you say that my "mentality" is "defensive" we can start throwing things, but how is attacking each others' "mentalities" constructive or helpful? ? Yes, it's great that you started with hardware sequencers and bought books and studied, so did I, at one point I had a QY70 (just recently sold it), but not everyone has the time, need, inclination, or concentration to do that. This guy just wants to make a marionette show with a synchronized backing track every so often. The OP had a suggestion that there could be a simplified version of Cakewalk for people with simpler uses for the software. This is a valid suggestion, and it is a fact that there are just such programs on the market. Cakewalk Inc. marketed such software. I think I remember reading that the Lens feature was created to make it easier to market simplified versions and was later expanded for the use of hiding features that were not pertinent to the user's task at hand. Logic Pro X has two modes, for basic and advanced use, this is a common thing in highly complex software. For all my ability to dive in and tweak values of MIDI parameters and all that, it's sometimes really valuable to have a tool that when I come up with a beat on the drums that I want to enter quickly into the DAW, I can run over and get right to it without much ado before I forget it. I don't see it as "spoon-feeding" more like acknowledging that Cakewalk is such a huge versatile beast that in some cases it will be convenient to tailor it for entirely different uses. And from a creativity standpoint, there can be something to be said for having an uncluttered workspace with fewer distractions. I started with SplatWalk at the first BandLab release, having already been recording with other DAW's and physical hardware for quite some time and found the learning curve quite steep, and not a small part of that was due to the depth. So many menus! Also, the Reference Guide was but a twinkle in the eye at that point.

I have all 3 of the Strings, Woodwind, and Brass, and they are fine tools indeed if you just want some good-sounding orchestrals at rock-bottom prices. Can't speak for the sampled Steinway or the cinematic percussion instruments, but if the quality of the samples is up to their usual standards, getting all these for $4 each will be a killer deal. I'd hit it for sure if I were doing scoring. https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/58-Inst-Bundle/1856-Film-Score-Companion

Now that you all have had some time with Union, how is it? I'm a SoundSpot fan, heck I'm almost a SoundSpot completist after buying so many of their plug-ins for $5. Their UI's look great on modern high resolution monitors, with large controls. Usually CPU-friendly, although I understand that Union is rumored to be a hog?

I used the code, and Cakewalk doesn't recognize the new plug-ins. ? In other words, works perfectly!?

The Creative Collection has DB-33, their excellent Hammond emulation, Mini Grand, their piano, and XPand!2, their workstation ROMpler: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/58-Inst-Bundle/1685-AIR-Creative-Collection The Keyboard Collection has DB-33, Mini Grand, and Velvet, an electric piano that includes Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hohner Pianet emulations: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/58-Inst-Bundle/1686-AIR-Keyboard-Collection Since I already have 2 licenses for XPand!2, which covers all 4 of my computers, I'm looking at the Keyboard Collection. Demo the pianos and see how they sound.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1560-Xpand-2 A favorite of Cakewalkers as a supplement/replacement for the venerable TTS-1. At this price, if you don't already have it, just get it, don't even think about it. It also qualifies you for this month's PB freebie, iZotope Nectar Elements, if you haven't picked up on that yet.

Also, are these VSTi's, live instruments recorded through microphones, or what? Are you recording them at the same time, or overdubbing?

This is what I do once I've settled on a "keeper" track. Either that or as I said, move the unused takes to another track and then archive the track, which stops them from being streamed. Sometimes I like to keep alternate takes around for archival purposes in case it starts to nag at me that maaayyyyybeeee the other vocal take was better or I liked the other guitar track or something and that's one way to do it, but I have also used your method of renaming the project "XXXArchive" or whatever and then start deleting the leftovers. It can perk things up. Sometimes it has little effect, but I have a friend who likes to record drum take after drum take until he finds his groove, and I mean this guy will get up to like 20 takes, so even with my minimal mic'ing, that's 80 lanes!

As far as I know, SONAR by itself, excluding the add-ons, only takes up about 1G of disk space, so maybe this is not so much to worry about? The majority of the hard drive space is consumed by the extras, which is what you want. Others please correct me if I'm wrong.